screaming kids in big stores

Anabelle and I went to Ross the other day and when we were getting in line to pay for our stuff we heard a little boy crying. His mom seemed to have reached the end of her rope and was unable to console him. Anabelle was very concerned and approached him to see what was the problem. The little boy was just standing there crying, so she went up to him, put her arms around him and told him, "No cry, it's ok, no cry." She just held him and patted his head (the good mommy that she is) and eventually the little boy stopped crying. Once he stopped she let go of him and told him, "you Ok, no crying. You happy now?" Needless to say, the mom was very grateful and proceeded to tell me what a great kid I had. Anabelle came back to me and grabbed my hand and said, "Nene (spanish for little boy) happy now mommy." My little Polyanna, spreading joy wherever she goes!!! Gosh I love that girl.
* Posted by Maria *

"Sponges", or "At mevina ivrit Anabelle?"

I just wanted to point out the obvious and state that kids are sponges... while they tend to leave more puddles on the floor than they soak up, they absorb everything else. A package came in the mail today, and Anabelle wanted to help me open it. When opened she saw it... it was a Hebrew-English dictionary. Jokingly I passed it to her and asked her if she could read it... after thumbing through the pages she said, "It's a shoov bevacasha book!" Needless to say, this surprised me a lot for a few reasons: 1) I've only been studying Hebrew for a few months now, and I almost only study it by listening to mp3s, 2) while I've taught her some phrases (e.g., shoov bevacasha or "again please") I've haven't really pointed out hebrew text to her, 3) she's not even 2.5 years old yet.... In other words, kids are sponges... they learn things from us even when we don't make a real effort to teach those items to them.

July 4th and July 4th on the 7th

So being the OCD grad student that I am, I was in the lab on the 4th of July this year. However, when I finally came home, Anabelle and I went to see the fireworks at the La Jolla Cove. I did take the 7th off and we went to Sea World... I know this is the ~15th time I've posted Sea World pictures, but we're cheap and only have Sea World season passes this year. Anyway, on that day, we petted rays,
saw the penguins,
and sang along with Jack Johnson.

Disneyland

Maria and some friends wanted to be on "The Price is Right" today, so Brad (the husband of Maria's friend that invited her) and I took our little ones (Gabe and Anabelle, respectively) to Disneyland

Of course, Anabelle's favorite part of disneyland was the Princess Storytime. Here, my favorite princess, Mulan (since she's a tough, intelligent princess), was telling her story. Halfway through the story, though, Gabe couldn't take anymore of this girly stuff and had to leave. Anabelle and I stayed for the rest of Mulan's story... however Anabelle was distraught when I told her it was time to go.

Shortly thereafter, Anabelle was exstatic again when she got to meet both Mickey and Minnie Mouse within a 15 minute time frame. She kept telling me afterwords that Mickey kissed her... he's lucky it's a 30 minute wait to meet him, or I, being an over-protective father, would have to go back and rough him up.

Maybe Mickey isn't the real threat... shortly after the Mickey and Minnie incident, I found Anabelle and Gabe "hiding" in a pumpkin... hmmm...
Well, Anabelle didn't get a nap all day, so at about 6pm, she had a 20 minute meltdown when she saw someone eating popcorn and said she wanted some, but wasn't happy when I told her that the popcorn wasn't ours... Brad ended up giving her a granola bar and she fell asleep eating it. Unfortunately, a few minutes later the parade came by with the princess float. I tried to wake her up for it but she wasn't responding. However, when Brad was taking a picture me holding her in front of the float, I suddenly heard "CINDERELLA! CINDERELLA! HI CINDERELLA! HIIII!!!!" I looked back at Anabelle on my shoulder and found her not only suddenly awake, but violently waving her hand.

coming soon...

Yet More Adventures at Sea World...

Last year we had season passes to the San Diego Zoo, so this year we decided to get Sea World passes. This past month my mom came to visit us and my brother's family for a couple weeks, so we went to Sea World with her and with my brother's kids. Anabelle and Tori loved the frozen high-fructose corn syrup and Tartrazine (Yellow No. 5)... a.k.a. frozen lemonade. This is them showing off their yellow tongues.

Bennett (my brother) had his birthday this past week and so we joined his family and two of his friends (Travis and Frank) to have breakfast with Shamu. They have a program in which you have had a breakfast next to one of the pools and they have a show with the Orcas while you eat. Our camera batteries, however, were dead... so the rest of the pics are from after the breakfast, after we bought some new batteries. Anabelle loved the dolphin show and playing in the new Elmo's playground.
Bennett, his family, Travis and Frank, all watching the dolphins.
Hmmm... whatever...
Anabelle and Maria riding in a flying swordfish.Anabelle will climb through bushes at sea world just to get to the speakers therein so she can dance next to them... I feel bad because she killed a few plants this time...

First Day of School (kind of)

A couple weeks ago Anabelle started school. Two days a week now she catches the bus with me since her school is right next to where I go. She loves playing with the other kids and she loves her teachers. However, I guess we were so excited for her to go on her first day, that we left the camera at home, so these pictures are from her second day of school...

No Sleep In Church Daddy!

Anabelle is starting to recognize the difference between right and wrong... Last Sunday I was still recovering from jet lag when we had to go to 9am church at Maria's family's ward in Maryland. Part way through sacrament meeting, I started to close my eyes and bow my head to "rest my eyes" when Anabelle suddenly blurted out at the top of her lungs "NO SLEEP IN CHURCH DADDY!!!" Needless to say, that woke me up... fortunately, however, she went to nursery during sunday school, so I made good use of the time away from her.

To Maria

Twas not too long ago,
For most, a day like any other,
But for you it was the day,
That you were giv'n a mother.

She worked so hard,
Oh hours long, you'll never know,
Day to day
She worked to help you grow.

She taught you right,
What to do, what to be like.
I'm especially glad, day and night,
That she gave me the pic of you on a bike! (and you look gooood!)

As days went by, though she worked and tried
You still got a personality of your own...
More than once she probably sighed
much like you do at the little one in our home.

She watched out for you,
day and night,
She played with you
by your side.


Through the years she did her best,
to pave the way to follow,
Fortunately, you've been wise
To follow her good example.



She's now oh so proud,
and very happy for you.
You taught of Christ to crowds,
and have captured an eternal view.

Since that day you flew the nest,
You've taken what you learned
and lived what
she taught was best.

You've become a mission-mom,

a mentor,
a big sister,
but most importantly,
a mother.

Now as you live day to day,
I'm grateful for all you do and say,
You're planting a wide array of seeds,
of love, of joy, of peace... all that Anabelle needs.


I love you Maria!


post script.... here's a link to a really good mother's day poem I heard in church today.